Greenlight vs LiveKit
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted video conferencing options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Greenlight
Front-end for managing BigBlueButton meeting rooms
VS
LiveKit
Scalable WebRTC infrastructure for real-time audio and video
| Feature | Greenlight | LiveKit |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Video Conferencing | Video Conferencing |
| License | LGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Ruby | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, source | docker, kubernetes, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 848 | ★ 20,181 |
| First released | 2016 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Zoom, Google Meet | Twilio, Agora |
Why pick each one
Choose Greenlight if…
- Released under the LGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Ruby
Frequently asked questions
Is Greenlight or LiveKit better?
Neither is universally better. LiveKit has the larger community, while Greenlight is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Greenlight and LiveKit free and open-source?
Yes. Greenlight is licensed under LGPL-3.0 and LiveKit under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Greenlight and LiveKit with Docker?
Greenlight: yes. LiveKit: yes.